The Sri Lankan Parliament passed a controversial bill Wednesday, which has been condemned by opposition politicians and several human rights groups for curtailing free speech in the country. The Online Safety Bill aims to tackle cybercrimes such as child abuse, data theft and online fraud. However, human rights organizations warned that the bill poses a [...]
Iran must do more to protect its lawyers, advocacy groups and international organizations said Wednesday, as they marked the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer. Each year on Jan. 24, the international legal community honors lawyers around the world who work to advance human rights and the rule of law, even when doing so entails [...]
Kansas lawmakers urge the state’s attorney general on Tuesday to release a report containing information on an August 11, 2023 police raid on a local weekly newspaper in the state. A local prosecutor previously determined that Marion County police lacked sufficient evidence to conduct a raid on the Marion County Record office. In House Resolution No. 6032, [...]
A US district court on Wednesday dismissed concerns about Alabama death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith potentially choking on his own vomit during his planned execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a novel and untested method of capital punishment. Smith’s legal team is urgently trying to stop the execution, which is scheduled for Thursday. They argue that [...]
Houthi authorities sent a letter Tuesday to the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, requesting that all British and American nationals leave Yemen within a month. The letter comes as US and British forces continue strikes against targets in Yemen. Houthi forces had been targeting ships in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a busy [...]
The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Tuesday a lower court order and ruled against a trailer park in a case involving the application of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The issue involved Waples Mobile Home Park, which had required all adult tenants to provide proof of their legal status in the US in [...]
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed Tuesday to provide the indigenous people of southern Bahia with federal support following the most recent land dispute between farmers and the indigenous Pataxó Hã Hã Hãe people. The dispute led to the death of a indigenous leader; her brother, an indigenous chief was also shot but survived [...]
The UK High Court ruled Tuesday that the Secretary of State for the Home Office unlawfully operated a “secret policy” that saw more than 1,500 people who were the victims of modern slavery denied leave to remain. The Claimant, known as XY, was kidnapped and enslaved by a gang in Albania, his home country. The [...]
The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held Tuesday that a Maryland county regulation requiring firearms dealers to provide suicide prevention literature at the point of sale is constitutional under the US Constitution’s First Amendment. Anne Arundel County, Maryland, declared suicide a public health crisis and in January 2022 passed an ordinance directing the county’s [...]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the seizure of 700 safety deposit boxes under the process of civil asset forfeiture went beyond the warrant issued and violated the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. The case began in 2021, when the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) obtained a warrant to [...]
